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A new study was released and it asked Republicans and Democrats which television shows they watch, and the results are pretty split when it comes to viewers.

The study, which was conducted by media-research company Experian Simmons, asked people their favorite shows, cable or broadcast, then asked what political party they belonged to. They put an average of how many people liked the show in the party’s respective color and the number of the opposing party in parenthesis. Non-surprisingly, the top show for both parties were political news programs. For Republicans, the #1 show for them was Glenn Beck. On the other side, the Democrats chose Countdown with Keith Olbermann as their most popular show. Glenn Beck, which is on the Fox News Channel, is loved by conservatives and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, which airs on MSNBC, is obviously adored by liberals as seen by the fallout from Olbermann’s suspension.

Something that surprised me was that all of the shows loved by Republicans are the highest rated on television, and the shows loved by Democrats are critically acclaimed but get pretty low ratings. The most popular shows for Republicans are Amazing Race, Modern Family, American Idol, and V. All but V are super-hits for their respective networks, with American Idol being the most popular show on television.

Democrats on the other hand, have pretty good taste with TV shows. Most of the shows on their most popular list are critically acclaimed but are either in cable or are struggling in the ratings. The runner-up on their list to Countdown is the Emmy Award winning Drama Mad Men (which has won for Outstanding Drama 3 years in a row) and Showtime’s Dexter coming in at third. It also seems like Democrats have a thing for the Kardashians as Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami makes the list at a surprisingly high 4th place. Other shows that are critically loved but get tiny numbers are 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, and Breaking Bad.

The only show that got the same amount of viewers from both Republicans and Democrats is ABC’s Desperate Housewives which got both 116 Democrats and Republican’s liking. The show got the 10th spot on the Republican’s list but was edged out of the Democrats list by Breaking Bad which was #20 on the list. One surprise for me was that Modern Family was rated so high for Republicans even though it has a gay couple (which are also lead characters) on the show. Republicans also seem to love CBS; 6 of the shows made their list, compared to no CBS shows being on the Democrat’s list. In comparison, the Democrats had 4 NBC shows (FNL included) and the Republicans had no NBC shows that made it to the top 20.

Here’s the list of the top 20 shows for both Democrats and Republicans (Courtesy – The Hollywood Reporter)